Argument in favor

In case none of you noticed: the FAKE made by Hillary and Democrats, Pee-pee dossier was the ONLY piece of evidence used to substantiate Carter Page as a Russian agent and thus Trump collusion. Page has not been charged. There is no collusion. Put plainly to accept this premise you would have to state: “trump colluded with democrats to steal election for himself.” Ie. HE WON FAIR AND SQUARE. If you can’t handle it, it’s YOUR problem.

Some pirate radio broadcasts are frequently used to spread fake information and propaganda on the behalf of themselves or other organizations, while others use it to spread alternative true facts and new ideas. The issue is the fact that this methodology hurts businesses, especially small and or new stations. In general because these pirated stations are used sometimes by certain organizations, it can be used for recruitment or to promote ideas that are harmful to mainstream society or certain groups of people. As a result, I don't believe it ignoring the issue and treating it lightly is wise. We need to punish people who use it to harm other people or spread bad ideas based on hatred and lies.

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Argument opposed

Laws like this could stifle competition and innovation from upstart radio stations and amateurs that may push the boundaries of legality.

While pirating should be penalized, the proposed increase in the penalty will be far more harmful for small local and regional broadcasters than for corporate broadcasters who can easily pay even the proposed penalty in this act. While piracy is a problem, smaller broadcasting companies shouldn't be penalized for piracy violations to the point it could force them out of business.

What is House Bill H.R. 5709?

This bill ― known as the PIRATE Act ― would set steep financial penalties for individuals found to be operators of unlicensed radio stations (aka “pirating”). It’d increase fines for illegal pirate operations to $100,000 per day per violation from $10,000 per violation, and establish a fine of up to $2 million for facilitating pirate radio broadcasting. It would also streamline the FCC’s enforcement process and empower state and local law enforcement in combating illegal pirate operations.

The bill’s full title is the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement (PIRATE) Act.

Impact

Radio listeners; broadcasters -- both legitimate and pirate; and regulatory agencies.

Cost of House Bill H.R. 5709

A CBO estimate of this bill is unavailable.

More Information

In-Depth: The legislation, proposed by Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Paul Tonko (D-NY), would also set forth protections from signals that are sent from illegal radio operators and can pose a significant threat to public safety – oftentimes disrupting Federal Aviation Administration operations, the Emergency Alert System and other tools relied upon by first responders

“Protecting our public airwaves is an essential part of protecting our communities,” said Tonko. “Whether a radio frequency is being used by first responders coordinating to save lives or parents who just want to keep obscenity and bigotry away from their children, our communities are better served when broadcasting is governed by the rule of law. I am grateful to my colleagues for their support of the PIRATE Act, important legislation that will ensure our airwaves and communities are kept safe.”

Speaking at the start of the markup, Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) commented that the PIRATE Act:

“Gives the FCC more tools to combat illegal pirate radio operations. These illegal broadcasts deprive Americans of their access to important emergency alerting information and their access to educational and other programming provided by legitimate license holders.”

In case none of you noticed: the FAKE made by Hillary and Democrats, Pee-pee dossier was the ONLY piece of evidence used to substantiate Carter Page as a Russian agent and thus Trump collusion. Page has not been charged. There is no collusion. Put plainly to accept this premise you would have to state: “trump colluded with democrats to steal election for himself.” Ie. HE WON FAIR AND SQUARE. If you can’t handle it, it’s YOUR problem.

While pirating should be penalized, the proposed increase in the penalty will be far more harmful for small local and regional broadcasters than for corporate broadcasters who can easily pay even the proposed penalty in this act. While piracy is a problem, smaller broadcasting companies shouldn't be penalized for piracy violations to the point it could force them out of business.

Requiring "licenses" in order to operate allows for the FCC to censor stations and individuals they don't agree with. They should move to a system that automatically approves licenses as long as they do not overlap a first responsders channel

Some pirate radio broadcasts are frequently used to spread fake information and propaganda on the behalf of themselves or other organizations, while others use it to spread alternative true facts and new ideas. The issue is the fact that this methodology hurts businesses, especially small and or new stations. In general because these pirated stations are used sometimes by certain organizations, it can be used for recruitment or to promote ideas that are harmful to mainstream society or certain groups of people. As a result, I don't believe it ignoring the issue and treating it lightly is wise. We need to punish people who use it to harm other people or spread bad ideas based on hatred and lies.

Seeing that the internet it is easy to set up a means to broadcast a station this is not a bad bill. To broadcast over the airways possibly over other stations legally owned frequency should be punished hard. There are many more ways to spread your message without disrupting radio frequencies.

It isn’t that pirate radio broadcasting is not an issue, but the penalties outlined in this bill appear to be way too harsh. This seems like a bill for our politicians to tout their “tough on crime” credentials rather than being smart on crime.

This doesn't seem an appropriate thing for congress to spend time on at this point. I wonder about the scope and what it would include; like a very small broadcaster at 1/2 watt or are there limits so we're going after big ones with more than 50,000 watts. In either case, it seems like they are trying to fix something that I've not heard is "broke." (Remember - if it ain't broke don't "fix" it.)